Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Day 7: The Island

Now for the post I wanted to write on Saturday, but didn't get to due to what turned out to be exhaustion(from the sun, lots of exercise, etc.)

I feel SO blessed to have a place of escape from time to time here in Guinea. As much as I've tried to resist, Guinea has swept me away- the people, the scenery- incredible. My heart is here right now.

This is how you get to the island(well..on this kind of boat packed with Mercy Shippers:

It can be very hit or miss with me, but this time I was having fun doodling and enjoying the space, as our particular boat only had a few people on it and there was lots of room to spread out... my stomach churned a little bit, but what's new:)

When we got there, my friend Kelly brought out the paddle boards... I'd
never heard of them before but was thrilled to try them out with her.
Thankfully the island has a calm side and a rough side... we stuck to
the calm side since I'm terrified of waves. Here's what my adventure on the boards looked like....

And so the adventure began....

David helping me get out

It took a while for me to get on my knees, but I did(I'm the one on the left).

Clearly, I was determined

First attempt up

I'm Up....

And crash...

Trying again with less help

Boom

Getting back on/resting for a minute

Decided to go on my knees for a while, so I could get a handle on steering/rowing

Eventually Kelly switched out to give Ryan a turn... this is me from afar attempting to get up again(on the left).

I'M DOING IT!!!!

FIERCE!!!

Afterwards, Kelly and Ryan decided to take a bit of an excursion, so I
met these lovely people who peeled me a grapefruit. Essentially, the
colored part of the rind is peeled off, leaving the pith/the white stuff
there... you cut a hole in the top and squeeze the juice(and the bounty
of seeds) out. Once you've juiced it to your liking, you flip it inside
out and eat the insides.... amazing... I think I'll do that at home if I
can... but the peels to grapefruits here are about 1/2 inch thick...;)

After they got back, We headed to the rougher side of the island, where they paddle boarded the waves(oh no- you would NEVER get me out there doing that...), so I set up a hammock my friend let me borrow for the day, was forced to buy a coke(which I couldn't drink) to set up there, a great guy helped me get the hammock set up(takes a lot of weird knots for the- who knew!), and gave him the coke as a thank you.

After a while, I headed over to see about lunch- I'd ordered shrimp. Then we waited... and waited... it was 2:15 and the boat leaves at 3, so I decided to go back to my area(probably 1/4 mile away), pack my things up and bring them over so that once the food was here we could eat and go..... and we waited.... around 2:40 the guy finally showed up.... we chowed down like nobody's business. My friends got a fish with plantains and I got shrimp and fries, so naturally we all dug in... with our hands mostly... and enjoyed eachother's food:) Amazing fish... the shimp were... hm.. my mom makes better- I mean they were just out of the ocean- can't beat that, but fish straight out of the ocean is way better...:)

We took our hour-long boat ride back and when we got back, I took what felt like the best shower of my life after being in sand for 7 hours. And I just relaxed. However, later that night I got really exhausted- literally- nearly passing out and about to vomit, but once I layed down, I was good to go and slept a long night(where I then posted that blog). Totally worth it for the amazing day:)